Film reviews: Rebellion | Evil Dead

Rebellion (15)

* * * *

France’s maverick moviemaker Mathieu Kassovitz (La Haine) returns as director, co-writer and star of a damning account of recent French military history, where tribal dwellers in New Caledonia are brutally repressed by French commandos. It gets bogged down in detail at times, but there’s no mistaking its sense of injustice.

Selected release: Cineworlds Edinburgh and Glasgow and Cameo Edinburgh from Friday, then GFT from 26 April

Promised Land (15)

* * *

Weighing up the environmental costs of fracking, Matt Damon stars in a well-intentioned, rather preachy drama about a corporate suit who arrives in a small town to buy up drilling rights, and comes to recognise merit in John Krasinski’s opposition. A less-satisfying Local Hero.

General release from Friday

Me And You (15)

* * *

Bernardo Bertolucci’s first feature in ten years is an underdeveloped study of a half-brother and sister. This is the sort of thing he could do in his sleep, and probably did.

Selected release: GFT, Saturday

Evil Dead (18)

* *

Remake of Sam Raimi’s 1981 cult horror about teenagers who spend the night in a remote cabin with a barbed-wire bound book they aren’t supposed to read. Fede Alvarez makes some plot and character changes, but is chiefly interested in gross-out gruesomeness. Lacking Raimi’s transgressive invention and wit, there really are some things that man should not meddle with.

General release from Friday

Love Is All You Need (15)

* *

Pierce Brosnan is a fruit and veg magnate charmed by a goodhearted hairdresser at a family wedding. A family gathering of stereotypes seems a curious choice for Susanne Bier, who made Denmark’s Oscar-winner, In A Better World. Maybe some of its ambition got lost in translation?

Selected release; April 19 at Cineworld Glasgow, Edinburgh and Falkirk, Glasgow Film Theatre, Edinbrugh Filmhouse and Aberdeen Belmont.

From April 26 at Contemporary Arts Centre Dundee

Film reviews: Rebellion | Evil Dead | Me and You